Every year, SAMCO donates to the Japanese Red Cross as part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. Normally, SAMCO makes this donation at the end of each fiscal year (end of July), but in light of the calamitous East Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, SAMCO provided additional financial aid to the recovery and reconstruction efforts at the end of March 2011. Although more than one year has passed since the disaster, and considering the lack of progress in restoring the afflicted Tohoku region, SAMCO once again offered a donation notably higher than usual. Henceforth, SAMCO pledges to continually support the restoration of the disaster-afflicted Tohoku region.

2012 marks the 25th anniversary of SAMCO’s OPTO Films Research Laboratory, located in the heart of Silicon Valley. Since its founding in 1987, ‘OPTO’ has spearheaded various types of research,and continues to push the R&D frontiers involving diamond, DLC, and other carbon materials. Together with SAMCO’s R&D center in Japan and Cambridge Laboratory in England, OPTO serves as a cornerstone of SAMCO’s global R&D system and contributes to SAMCO’s overall growth.

SAMCO has established a new service office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to provide technical support and service to our customers in Southeast Asia and India.

SAMCO has developed and released a high-density plasma etching system, the “RIE-331iPC”, to meet the demands of the Asian markets. We will introduce the RIE-331iPC at SEMICON Japan 2011, to be held at Makuhari Messe on December 7th.

We at SAMCO extend our sincere condolences to all those affected by the massive flooding in Thailand; our thoughts go out to the victims and their families.

On July 7, 2011, the SAMCO Inc. board of directors approved a stock split (six-for-five) for SAMCO Inc. stock. Each shareholder of record at the close of business on July 31, 2011 will receive one additional share for every 5 outstanding shares held on the record date. Cash will be paid in lieu of fractional shares.

SAMCO has established a fund for SAMCO members’ volunteer activities to support people stricken by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. During the holiday (from April 29th to May 5th, 2011), several employees participated in volunteer activities such as cleaning debris and distributing supplies. SAMCO will continue to support people in the disaster affected area.

SAMCO’s sales office in Sendai has reopened on Monday, April 4, 2011, for the first time since its closure on March 11, 2011 due to the earthquake.  We at SAMCO will do our best to help our customers in the earthquake-affected areas recover from the damage as quickly as possible.

We would like to extend our condolences to the families of those killed by the earthquake and our deepest sympathy to all who were affected by the earthquake. SAMCO employees from of all over the world donated 10.05 million JPY to the Japan Red Cross. We will do our utmost to support our customers in the course of their recovery from the earthquake.